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The University of Texas at Dallas vs. The University of Belgrade
The Internet Chess Club is honored to host, once again, the Gligoric Transatlantic Cup, a chess tournament played on ICC's chess server between The University of Texas at Dallas and The University of Belgrade.
The match is scheduled for November the 9th at 12:00 PM (noon) EST.
Download the brochure HERE for all the info and the matchups.

The Internet Chess Club is excited to announce its new monthly tournament with cash prizes. To be played on the first Saturday of each month, November Weekend Showdown cash prize tournament was held November 3, at 2:00 PM (EDT) - BLITZ 3 0 NINE ROUNDS - Thematic, with a new initial position for each round. We offer cash prizes for the top finishers, as well as ICC membership time and video series giveaways for class winners!
The ICC WEEKEND SHOWDOWNS is an occasion to measure your strength...Full Story

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This week I have the final wrap-up from the Olympiad, where the medals were ultimately decided by tiebreak. The United States, China, and Russia all ended up tied for first with eight match wins, one loss, and two draws. This time the tiebreak was not kind to the U.S., and...Full Story

The Internet Chess Club is excited to announce its new monthly tournament with cash prizes. To be played on the first Saturday of each month, October Weekend Showdown cash prize tournament was held October 6, at 2:00 PM (EDT) - BLITZ 3 0 NINE ROUNDS. We offer cash prizes for the top finishers, as well as ICC membership time and video series giveaways for class winners!
The ICC WEEKEND SHOWDOWN is an occasion to measure your strength against super-strong players and, why not, to win one of...Full Story

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After 10 tough rounds, the US, with today's victory over Armenia, got back in the lead! Sam Shankland is the hero of the day. His win against Melkumyan made it possible to the US to bring home the two precious points.
Don't...Full Story

The Olympiad is heating up, as they have completed round seven today. So far the U.S. is delivering. The top seeds have six match victories with a lone drawn match versus Israel. The stars and stripes have received a bit of a break on the pairings in the last two rounds, beating Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia handily, 3.5-.5 and 3-1 respectively. With only four rounds, the Americans have still not faced Russia, China, and Azerbaijan (seeds 2-4), and the way things are shaping up, at least...Full Story

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After five rounds, and going into the rest day, four countries lead the standings with 5 match wins.
Here is for you GM Alex Yermolinsky's recap, aired LIVE on ICCTV!
Azerbaijan at the top is not a surprise. The guys...Full Story

It was a pretty quiet week in the chess world because the Olympiad has been gearing up to start in Batumi, Georgia. Today was the first round, and I’ll have some early highlights, but first, we will travel to Kazan for a tribute to a much-beloved player from history, Rashid Nezhmedinov.
Before we get to the proper Nezmedinov Memorial, we will play “where in the world is Timur Gareev?”
GM Timur Gareev in Kazan, 2018 (Photo from Instagram)
Answer: tying for first in the rapid tournament...Full Story

This week we will have a look at some of the action from the Champions Showdown in St. Louis, where ten top grandmasters tried their hand at an interesting chess variant.
But before I give my two cents about all that, let’s wrap up the World Juniors with a remarkable result from the new champion.
GM Parham Maghsoodloo (Iran)
Parham Maghsoodloo dominated the World Junior from start to finish. So impressive was the 17-year-old Iranian that even a loss in the last round to 16-year-old...Full Story

Playing Chess over the Net is something that can give you a lot of different feelings: satisfaction, frustration, anger, happiness. One thing is sure: it's a lot of fun and, in a way, it's addicting.
Quick Time Controls have taken over, and the vast majority of played games are fast blitz.
Now, what's best than sit at your desk, or on your couch, and play a streak of blitz games? And what if among your opponents you can meet a Grandmaster or an International Master? And, last but not least,...Full Story

Lev Paciorkowski
America’s longest-running chess tournament – the 140th Annual New York State Championship – was held in Albany from August 31 – September 3. 18-year-old Lev Paciorkowski took clear first with 5 points out of 6. Lev’s formative chess years were spent playing at the Rochester Chess Center and in the Rochester Interscholastic Chess League; now Lev, a Senior Master, attends Rochester Institute of Technology. The last time a Rochester-area resident won the NYS Championship was...Full Story

Hi, guys!
This week I have action from the Russian Championship, and catch you up on some title norms achieved on the West Coast. But first, let me recap the finish from the Sinquefield Cup.
There were very few decisive games in the late rounds from St. Louis. Caruana took the lead with a win over Karjakin and held it going into the last round. Carlsen and Aronian caught him in quite a different style. Carlsen squeezed a win in a probably drawn ending against Nakamura, while Aronian used a...Full Story

The Internet Chess Club is excited to announce its new monthly tournament with cash prizes. To be played on the first Saturday of each month, September Weekend Showdown cash prize tournament was held September 2, at 11:00 AM (EST) - BLITZ 3 0 NINE ROUNDS - Chess960 (Fischer Random). We offer cash prizes for the top finishers, as well as ICC membership time and video series giveaways for class winners!
Starting October, the ICC Weekend Showdown will be held the first SATURDAY of the month, at...Full Story

One of the toughest events on the circuit is the US Masters, held this year from August 17-21 in Greensboro, North Carolina.
The 86 competitors included 28 GMs and numerous other titled players. In this article, I present two games, related by the opening and the resulting middlegame themes, in which I faced very tough opposition.
In the very first round, I was paired up against GM Kamil Dragun, who was ranked fifth in the entire event.
GM Kamil Dragun
I tried the Berlin Defense to the Ruy...Full Story

GM Aleksandr Lenderman
To rave reviews, the Manhattan Open, held August 3-5, moved this year to the luxurious Crowne Plaza on Broadway. The Crowne Plaza offers several floors worth of welcoming shops and restaurants, and with its conference rooms on the 4th floor named Act I, Act II, et seq., or otherwise named after the avenues of Manhattan, it was a fittingly glamorous scene. But any upstart with a dream of glory quickly had their hopes dashed as Aleksandr Lenderman crushed the Open section...Full Story

The Internet Chess Club is excited to announce its new monthly tournament with cash prizes. To be played on the first Sunday of each month, August Sunday Showdown cash prize tournament was held August 5, at 11:00 AM (EST) - BLITZ 3 0 NINE ROUNDS. We offer cash prizes for the top finishers, as well as ICC membership time and video series giveaways for class winners!
The ICC SUNDAY SHOWDOWNS is an occasion to measure your strength against super-strong players and, why not, to win one of many...Full Story

Dortmund has traditionally belonged to Vladimir Kramnik. He had a share of the lead after four rounds, but lost in the fifth, sixth, and nearly again in the seventh round. Ian Nepomniachtchi won the tournament by a full point at 5-2.
GM Ian Nepomniachtchi
As it turned out, he didn’t need the full point in the last round, but he got it in short order against the tough-to-beat German Georg Meier. We’ll start with a look at that one:
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GM Joel Benjamin sporting his two gold medals and the ICC t-shirt
GM Joel Benjamin analyzes some of the games from Dresden
GM Alex Yermolinsky's report from Dresden
The U.S. team made a successful journey to Dresden, Germany and scooped up the gold medals in the 50+ division.
For a lot of the players, it was about getting the old gang back together. In my long chess career, nothing has provided me with more pride and pleasure than representing my country in Olympic events,...Full Story